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Koreaceratops
Koreaceratops was a genus of basal ceratopsian from the Albian stage from the lower Cretaceous rocks from South Korea. It was named by Lee et al. very recently in 2011 after South Korea where it was found (hence the name, Koreaceratops, meaning "Korean Horned Face"). Description Koreaceratops is notable for the tall neural spines on its caudal vertebrae, and for the structure of its astragalus. In some of the distal caudal vertebrae, the neural spines are over five times the height of the vertebral centra to which they attach. Lee et al. noted that several other ceratopsians also had tall neural spines on their caudals. As this trait appears in several branches of ceratopsians, Lee et al. postulated that the feature was independently evolved, perhaps as an adaptation for swimming. Lee et al. performed a phylogenetic analysis and found Koreaceratops to be positioned between Archaeoceratops and more derived ceratopsians. Koreaceratops hwaseongensis, lived about 103 million years ago during the late Early Cretaceous period. The specimen is the first ceratopsian dinosaur from the Korean peninsula. The partial skeleton includes a significant portion of the animal’s backbone, hip bone, partial hind limbs and a nearly complete tail. The Koreaceratops hwaseongensis is named for Korea and Hwaseong City, which yielded the fossil. It was discovered in 2008 in a block of rock along the Tando Basin reservoir. It is one of the first articulated dinosaurs known from Korea. At approximately 5 to 6 feet long and weighing about 60 to 100 pounds, the animal was relatively small compared to the geologically younger, giant relatives like Triceratops found in North America. Koreaceratops had a parrot-like face with a beak at the front of its jaws, indicating it was an herbivore. The claws on its hind feet suggest that it was bipedal and moved at a fairly rapid speed. Koreaceratops had a unique fan-shaped tail formed by long neural spines, which suggests it may have been a good swimmer, and spent part of its time hunting for aquatic food. More easier imformation With a parrot-like face and a beak at the end of its jaws, the Koreaceratops - named after where it was discovered, stood 1.7 metres (5 feet/6 inches) tall. The animal was relatively small compared to its younger relatives like Triceratops, from the Late Cretaceous from North America. The dinosaur had a 'cool' fan-like tail, which suggests that the dinosaur may have been a good swimmer, and claws on its feet suggests that it was also pretty speedy on land too. The dinosaur lived about 103 million years ago according to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's Michael Ryan, who made the discovery. 'This is quite a rare find', Ryan said when announcing the discovery. 'Fossils of dinosaurs have not typically been found in this region, whereas evidence of dinosaur eggs and footprints occur more commonly. This specimen is significant because it fills in a missing 20 million-year gap in the fossil record between the origin of these dinosaurs in Asia and their first appearance in North America'. Category:Herbivores Category:Ornithischia Category:Ceratopsians Category:Ceratopsia Category:Dinosaurs of Asia Category:Cretaceous dinosaurs Category:Early Cretaceous dinosaurs Category:Small Herbivores Category:Middle Cretaceous Dinosaurs Category:Bizarre Dinosaurs Category:Fossil taxa described in 2011